PRISTINA, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Germany declined to comment on on Saturday on reports that three Germans arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office in Kosovo were intelligence officers.

The explosive charge was thrown on Nov. 14 at the International Civilian Office (ICO), the office of EU Special Representative Pieter Feith, who oversees Kosovo's governance, but caused only minor damage. The men were detained on Thursday.

A spokesman for the German foreign ministry in Berlin confirmed that three Germans had been arrested, but declined to make any further comment as an investigation was under way.

A police source in Kosovo told Reuters: "They are members of the BND", but gave no further details.

The German weekly Der Spiegel also said the men worked for the German intelligence agency BND, and that they had told investigators they had been examining the scene of the explosion, but had not been involved in it.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February after nine years under U.N. stewardship and is recognised by more than 50 countries, including Germany.

Four days before the bomb attack, its leaders rejected a plan by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's for the deployment of an EU police and justice mission, EULEX.

Der Spiegel said the BND agents had not been officially registered with Kosovo authorities, which would have secured them diplomatic immunity.

A judge in Pristina was due to decide on Saturday whether to extend the men's detention or release them on bail. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Writing by Kerstin Gehmlich, Editing by Matthew Jones and Kevin Liffey)

* SNP angry with London for failing to propose increased fiscal powers * On a day of solemn gaiety, Sarkozy finds words for men shot for refusing orders * Poles mark 90th independence day * Russian paper mill polluting the 'Pearl of Siberia' to close * 'The Truth of Nanking' gives new slant on Japan's war history * Passive resistance the new Palestinian tactic

DANIEL McLAUGHLIN

A 2,000-STRONG EU mission to oversee policing and justice in Kosovo could suffer further delays after leaders of the newly independent state rejected a deal on the mission's deployment that had been agreed by Brussels, Serbia and United Nations officials.

The EU had hoped to deploy the mission soon after Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia in February, but it has been blocked by opposition from Belgrade, by Serbia's main ally, Russia, and by the ethnic Serbs who dominate much of northern Kosovo.

Serbs see the EU mission as a symbol of Kosovo's sovereignty - which they vow never to accept - and instead want policing and justice powers to remain with the UN mission that has run Kosovo since 1999, when Nato bombing ended a brutal Serb crackdown on separatist rebels.

Serb leaders said in recent days that EU and UN officials had accepted their demands that the EU monitoring mission in Kosovo should be approved by the UN Security Council and should formally remain neutral on the question of Kosovo's status.

The most contentious part of the plan concerns policing in northern Kosovo, home to most of the new country's 120,000 Serbs, who refuse to acknowledge the authority of the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina.

According to local media reports, the new plan envisages two separate chains of command for Albanian and Serb policemen in Kosovo.

In majority Albanian areas, police would be under the EU umbrella; police in northern Kosovo would report to the UN administration.

"We respect all initiatives but we have said that Kosovo is an independent country," said President Fatmir Sejdiu, standing alongside prime minister and former rebel Hashim Thaci.

"These points are interfering with the constitution of Kosovo," Mr Sejdiu added.

Brussels hopes the mission - dubbed EUlex - will be operational in December and hundreds of staff are already in Kosovo awaiting a handover of some powers from the UN administration.

Kosovo's leaders fear that changes to the original EU-supported plan for independence could embolden Serbia and lead to the division of their tiny country along ethnic lines.

Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not get 2000 EU troops in Kosovo.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday he hoped a new EU justice and police mission would be deployed in Kosovo by early December.

In February, the EU agreed to send the mission, known as EULEX, to Kosovo to take over from the United Nations and oversee the police, the judiciary and customs, but its deployment had been delayed by opposition from Serbia, which refuses to accept the secession of its former province.

Diplomats in New York say U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to issue a report next week saying there is now enough agreement for the mission to take over much of the authority held by the U.N. mission in Kosovo, or UNMIK.

"I hope very much that the report of the secretary-general will be issued, the sooner the better, and I hope that the beginning of next week will be (it)," Solana said after meeting Ban at U.N. headquarters in New York.

"If that is the case, then we will be ready to deploy by the beginning of December," he said.

EULEX's deployment ran into new obstacles recently. Earlier this month, Ban proposed an amended six-point plan for the deployment of EULEX that was accepted by Serbia but rejected by Kosovo.

According to the amended plan, police, customs officers and judges in the Serb-run areas would be under the umbrella of UNMIK, while their Albanian counterparts would work with EULEX.

Kosovo said that would violate its constitution and amounted to a de facto partition of the fledgling state.

The United States, an important supporter of Kosovo, has urged Pristina to accept the plan. After a meeting with Kosovo's leaders in Pristina on Monday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters that Ban's amended plan contained "a lot of good and no harm."

Kosovo's population is 90 percent Albanian. The remaining 120,000 Serbs refuse to cooperate with Albanian-run institutions.

Britain's U.N. ambassador, John Sawers, told Reuters on Friday the United Nations believed there was a "sufficient level of agreement now" between Belgrade and Pristina on EULEX for Ban to report that the deployment can go ahead as planned.

Kosovo declared independence in February, nine years after a U.N. administration was set up to run the province after Serbian forces were compelled to leave after a NATO bombing campaign.

Great find. These people are getting more and more obvious. I hope this will wake some more people up to the fact that intellegence agencies are staging these attacks so they can get control. Hope Alex covers this today.

Logged

"My heroes are people who monkey wrench the new world order". - Jello Biafra

A Kosovan judge has ordered three Germans suspected of throwing an explosive device at the EU headquarters in Pristina to be held for 30 days.

The attack on the EU office earlier this month caused no casualties

The three reportedly deny involvement in the attack on 14 November, saying they were detained while investigating it themselves.

Windows in the glass-fronted building were shattered but nobody was hurt.

German and Kosovo media report that the men are German intelligence agents but officials in Berlin refuse to comment.

Lawyers for the detainees say the prosecution is seeking terrorism charges that carry a maximum 20-year sentence.

A spokesman for the German foreign ministry in Berlin confirmed that three Germans had been arrested on Thursday, but declined to make any further comment as an investigation was under way.

The EU's "Blue Building" in Pristina is a glass-plated cube

The German weekly Der Spiegel said the men worked for the German intelligence agency BND, and that they told investigators they had been examining the scene of the explosion, but had not been involved in it.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February after nine years under UN stewardship and is recognised by more than 50 countries, including Germany.

Four days before the bomb attack, Kosovo's Albanian majority rejected an agreement between the UN and Serbia on the deployment of the much-delayed EU police and justice mission Eulex.

Are you in Pristina? Have you been affected by these events, or have you seen or heard anything? Send your comments or pictures using the form below.

yeah they were investigating the attack... just because they did it in secret without going through official channels doesnt mean they were involved they... they... they just didnt wanna bother the other investigators... that must be it... case closed now hand them back to germany.

German intelligence agents have been caught staging a false flag terror attack against an EU building in Kosovo, apparently in an attempt to create a pretext for EU police to be deployed in Kosovo after government leaders rejected the UN-mandated proposal.

“Germany declined to comment on on Saturday on reports that three Germans arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office in Kosovo were intelligence officers,” reports Reuters.

“The explosive charge was thrown on Nov. 14 at the International Civilian Office (ICO), the office of EU Special Representative Pieter Feith, who oversees Kosovo’s governance.”

A police source in Kosovo told Reuters: “They are members of the BND”, but gave no further details.

German news outlet Der Spiegel named the men as BND intelligence officers.

Most reports claimed that the officers had thrown dynamite at the building, while others reported that a bomb was placed near the building.

The bombing attempt happened just days after Kosovan leaders rejected a plan by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s for the deployment of a 2000 strong EU police and justice mission, EULEX.

A Kosovan judge has ordered that the men be detained for a further 30 days as prosecution lawyers seek terrorism charges that carry a maximum 20-year sentence.

The three men were not in Kosovo under official auspices but were working on behalf of a contractor, named by German media as Logistic Assessments.

“The alleged presence of covert intelligence operatives has led to a deterioration in the cordial relations between Germany and the newly independent Kosovo. The German foreign ministry confirmed that three German citizens had been detained in Kosovo. The BND had no comment,” reports the European Voice.

The German secret service, the BND, is notorious for infiltrating extremist groups and using them for their own political ends.

In March 2003 amidst a highly publicized attempt to ban the activities of a German Neo-Nazi political party, the trial collapsed in court after it emerged that the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) was full of German intelligence officers occupying top ranking positions, including the publisher of the party’s newspaper, who were all secretly on the government’s payroll for decades.

“The case has been stalled for more than a year after it emerged that the government’s case rested, at least partly, on a network of informants in the National Democratic Party. This raised the question of whether any acted as provocateurs,” reported the Scotsman.

As many as 30 leading figures in the party were exposed as paid agents and informers for the BND.

German intelligence agents have been caught staging a false flag terror attack against an EU building in Kosovo, apparently in an attempt to create a pretext for EU police to be deployed in Kosovo after government leaders rejected the UN-mandated proposal.

“Germany declined to comment on on Saturday on reports that three Germans arrested on suspicion of throwing explosives at an EU office in Kosovo were intelligence officers,” reports Reuters.

“The explosive charge was thrown on Nov. 14 at the International Civilian Office (ICO), the office of EU Special Representative Pieter Feith, who oversees Kosovo’s governance.”

A police source in Kosovo told Reuters: “They are members of the BND”, but gave no further details.

German news outlet Der Spiegel named the men as BND intelligence officers.

Most reports claimed that the officers had thrown dynamite at the building, while others reported that a bomb was placed near the building.

The bombing attempt happened just days after Kosovan leaders rejected a plan by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s for the deployment of a 2000 strong EU police and justice mission, EULEX.

A Kosovan judge has ordered that the men be detained for a further 30 days as prosecution lawyers seek terrorism charges that carry a maximum 20-year sentence.

The three men were not in Kosovo under official auspices but were working on behalf of a contractor, named by German media as Logistic Assessments.

“The alleged presence of covert intelligence operatives has led to a deterioration in the cordial relations between Germany and the newly independent Kosovo. The German foreign ministry confirmed that three German citizens had been detained in Kosovo. The BND had no comment,” reports the European Voice.

The German secret service, the BND, is notorious for infiltrating extremist groups and using them for their own political ends.

In March 2003 amidst a highly publicized attempt to ban the activities of a German Neo-Nazi political party, the trial collapsed in court after it emerged that the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) was full of German intelligence officers occupying top ranking positions, including the publisher of the party’s newspaper, who were all secretly on the government’s payroll for decades.

“The case has been stalled for more than a year after it emerged that the government’s case rested, at least partly, on a network of informants in the National Democratic Party. This raised the question of whether any acted as provocateurs,” reported the Scotsman.

As many as 30 leading figures in the party were exposed as paid agents and informers for the BND.

On the night of August 31, 1939 a small group of German operatives, dressed in Polish uniforms and led by Naujocks seized the Gleiwitz station and broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish (sources vary on the content on the message). The Germans' goal was to make the attack and the broadcast look like the work of anti-German Polish saboteurs.

Three German spies accused of throwing a bomb at a European Union office in Kosovo last month returned home on Saturday after a United Nations judge ordered their release for lack of evidence.

But their 10 days in detention has caused an unexpected chill between the new Balkan state and Berlin – one of its main political and financial backers.

Germany was one of the first countries to recognise Kosovo earlier this year and has pledged €100m worth of aid in 2009-2010 – the heftiest pledge from any donor after the US.

Kosovo’s government, in an apparent effort to assert its sovereignty, was irked to find the three men working undercover for the BND, Germany’s secret service – an allegation confirmed by a German lawmaker last week.

Local police and prosecutors had contended the BND men were trying to disrupt the deployment of Eulex, the EU-led police and justice mission, due this week to take over parts of the UN’s duties in the disputed territory.

The spies lacked diplomatic immunity because they had not registered themselves as agents – a step that was not seen as necessary during the nine years of UN rule, officials in Pristina said. They were detained by Kosovo police within days of the attack but local authorities have not explained why the agents might have attacked the office.

Thomas Steg, a spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel, said: “The federal government was always certain of the innocence of the three Germans”, arguing that they had nothing to do with the 300-gram package of dynamite thrown on November 14 into the parking lot of the International Civilian Office, the EU-led supervisory office for the new state.

Instead a group calling itself the Army of the Republic of Kosovo last week claimed responsibility for the blast, which shattered several windows but caused no injuries.

The attack exposed security flaws at the ICO, as the package sat smoking in the parking lot for eight minutes before detonating, staff members said.

In an e-mail to Kosovo police, the previously unknown group said it would also bomb the Eulex office and attack Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority “as long as the UN plan is in force”, a police spokesman said.

The US and leading EU member states last week backed UN proposals to ensure the presence of Eulex did not endorse Kosovo’s separation from Serbia even though the ethnic Albanian majority declared independence in February.

The ineptitude of three agents in Germany's foreign intelligence agency has endangered one of the organization’s most important operations: building up its secret network of informants in Kosovo. It has also strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The company is located in one of the better neighborhoods of the Kosovo capital of Pristina, in a large single-family house on a hill overlooking the valley at the edge of town. The white building is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. On a pole near the front entrance hangs a sign with the engraved company logo -- the letters LCAS -- and below that, three bands of color: black, red and gold.

A Mitsubishi Pajero with Munich license plates is parked behind the fence. The curtains are closed, and halogen spotlights with motion detectors have been installed under the eaves. A pair of garden shears is lying in front of the door, and there is a grill on the deck. The rear side of the property, with its neatly mowed lawn, is also fenced in.

The Germans moved in last fall and have always been very friendly, says the neighbor, Hajredin Shale, who also noted that one of them regularly went jogging. But he didn't see much of the three men. He says they lived alone, had no visitors, spoke no Albanian, and never said much more than hello.

Now, Shale's opportunity to get to know his neighbors better has passed. On Saturday, the three men left Pristina on a special flight headed for Berlin. Soon, the trio -- Robert Z., Andreas J. and Andreas D. -- will face a committee of German parliamentarians who have taken an interest in their case. Most likely, they will never return to Kosovo.

Faces on the Front Pages

And why should they? They entered the country as agents of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence agency. The operation ended with the trio on the evening news and their faces plastered across the front pages of German newspapers. Such attention is hardly a boon for the careers of secret agents.

Police arrested the three Germans nearly two weeks ago under suspicion of throwing explosives at the office of the EU Special Representative in Kosovo on Nov. 14. The release of the three Germans from custody marks the end of an unusual diplomatic spat between Germany and the tiny new Balkan nation. At times, the tone sharply transgressed the usually staid diplomatic tenor, says a member of the Kosovo government. At one point, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff, Thomas de Maizière, warned in a phone call to Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, that Berlin might consider discontinuing its subsidies.

It remains to be seen how the scandal will affect long-term relations between Berlin and Pristina. However, one thing is already clear. Thanks to the inept behavior of its agents, Germany's foreign intelligence service may have irreparably damaged one of its most important operations.

For a number of years, Kosovo has been a major operational area for the BND. In addition to being politically unstable and located not far from Germany's borders, it is a hotbed of organized crime with links to Germany and is a country where numerous German police officers and soldiers are stationed.

There are no less than three BND departments focusing on Kosovo, including Department Five, responsible for organized crime, the same department that certified in 2005 that Prime Minister Thaçi is a key figure in a Kosovar-Albanian mafia network. At the time, the confidential report was quickly leaked to the media. Thaçi has never forgiven the Germans for that.

Reconnaissance Information

Department Two, responsible for telecommunications surveillance, is also active in the Balkans. In the late 1990s, this section launched operation "Mofa99," in which the Germans tapped phone conversations between members of the controversial Kovoso Liberation Army (KLA). The operation was so successful that a number of German technicians were stationed for years in the Macedonian Interior Ministry to work on "Mofa99." Since then, the BND has maintained an extensive network of informants among high-ranking functionaries of the KLA and the Kosovar administration.

When the intelligence agency wanted to sound out the situation for Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, BND President Ernst Uhrlau authorized an additional operation in 2006. Department One was assigned the task of “force protection,” gathering as much information as possible to guarantee the security of troops on the ground. Pristina was selected as the base of operations for this top-secret mission. Top brass at the BND were pursuing two objectives: maintaining contacts with informants and gathering reconnaissance information.

The operation was handled by Department 11A, which, according to the secret resource allocation scheme of the BND, is responsible for “supporting Bundeswehr operations and coordinating strategic military reconnaissance.” The preparations could begin.

On April 12, 2007, two men, who identified themselves as "Michael Hohenstein" and "Rolf Hagen," registered the company LCAS Logistics-Coordination & Assessment Service Hohenstein & Hagen GmbH at the district court in Munich. The two Bavarians indicated that the purpose of the company was to provide “logistical services,” which is not entirely a lie. The company supposedly has only two employees, and is located in an office park with modern glass and steel buildings on the southern edge of Munich, in Ottobrunn.

The building at Alten Landstrasse 23 presents an ideal front for organizations working undercover. There are roughly a dozen computer and design companies, two law firms and a map manufacturer in this unobtrusive office building. A different company can be found behind each door along the long hallway. They all share a small kitchen and the restrooms, but otherwise have nothing to do with each other.

Top-Secret Mission

A sham company like LCAS blends in perfectly. Nobody knows who works here -- or if any work is being done. The sign on the door has now been removed. A young computer specialist from the other side of the hall says that the company has moved, but adds that he has almost never seen anyone there. The office looks, though, as if it has been used. There is a computer on the desk, and a Kandinsky print is hanging on the wall. That's enough to provide a cover for the top-secret Pristina mission of the BND.

This is where the operation began in September, 2007. On Oct. 5, 2007, LCAS was officially registered with startup capital of €2,500 ($3,175) under registration number 70453415 in the Kosovar capital, and the owner was listed as the parent company in Ottobrunn. The company has no turnover, pays no taxes, and keeps such a low profile that the director of a German employment agency says today: “If this company was active here, I would have known about it.” But the last thing that the young businessmen from Bavaria wanted was publicity for their company.

A total of 11 BND agents were stationed at different times in Pristina. They established contacts, investigated the situation and engaged in cloak and dagger operations -- all under the cover of LCAS. Usually, two to three agents were operating simultaneously on location. The last team consisted of Robert Z., Andreas J. and Andreas D. who, like many of their colleagues, had been reassigned from the Bundeswehr to the German foreign intelligence service.

Embarrassing Questions for the BND

Robert Z., 47, is an experienced agent who has served on a number of foreign missions. He was born in Constance and lives in Baden-Württemberg. He lives an inconspicuous life here with his wife and daughter. The neighbors know that he served in the Bundeswehr, “but only in the reserves.” Actually he does “something with computers,” they say. But his dual identity is revealed on his letter box, where both his real name and codename are visible.

Z. and his colleagues were part of a mission so secret both the Kosovar government and the official BND attache stationed at the German Embassy in Pristina knew nothing of it. The German ambassador was likewise in the dark.

On Friday, Nov. 14, around 5:30 p.m., an explosive device was detonated in front of the headquarters of the EU mission, known as EULEX. News agencies quickly reported the attack. BND headquarters and Department One in Pullach, near Munich, were alerted. They asked the trio in Pristina to find out what had happened and file a report for the next “intelligence situation” session at the chancellery in Berlin, where a top-flight group of German security officials meets every Tuesday. As BND President, Uhrlau has to personally report on major incidents, and he likes to be armed with exclusive knowledge.

So the three men hopped in their Mitsubishi on that Friday evening and drove off. Shortly before 9 p.m., Andreas J. got out of the vehicle near the scene of the blast to take some pictures. While his two colleagues waited in the car, the agent climbed into the neighboring building, a construction site, which offers an excellent view of the crime scene. But he wasn't alone: Apparently, other intelligence services were keeping the area under surveillance.

Confiscated a Notebook

As he left the building, the BND agent was stopped by a Danish United Nations peacekeeper who asked him what he was doing there. Andreas J. tried to talk his way out of the situation by explaining that he works for the security firm LCAS. He said that he just wanted to take a quick look at the scene of the attack. They were joined by a German UN official. J. was then asked to hand over his passport, and was searched. Investigators also confiscated a notebook.

This highly unfortunate incident raises a number of embarrassing questions for the BND. Why did the agency send its top-secret undercover agents to the scene when any rank amateur would have realized that there was a considerable risk of running into a police patrol? Why wasn’t the BND resident dispatched on this job? And why did J. take along his notebook, with all its confidential contents, and break every rule of covert operations?

In the confiscated documents, investigators found the names of Kosovo Prime Minister Thaçi and notes about the situation in Kosovo. For Berlin, the BND notebook represents an important piece of the puzzle, perhaps the key to understanding the case. Was it the notes that attracted the interest of political circles close to Prime Minister Thaçi?

In any case, that night the police let Andreas J. go after he named his two partners as witnesses. They could confirm that he was in his office when the explosion occurred, he said.

The next day, Saturday, Andreas J. was allowed to pick up his passport. It looked as if everything had been cleared up. But the next Wednesday the three men were unexpectedly arrested around 9 p.m., placed in a small cell, and intensively questioned. At the same time, authorities searched the LCAS company premises. Shortly thereafter, the BND had to admit the true identity of the three agents, threatening an end to one of the agency’s most important operations.

The incident jeopardizes the BND’s network of informants, which is more extensive in Kosovo than in most countries around the world. Berlin intelligence officials fear that the Kosovo government may now arrest large numbers of informants who have provided the BND with valuable information.

The only small satisfaction for the Germans must be that in Pristina the Kosovars are also looking for a scapegoat for the whole mess. An aide to Prime Minister Thaçi says that at least one important head will roll.

There is a saying in Serbia, that everything that happens bad in it, you blame the German and Austrian intelligence services.This may sound ironic or funny, but it has a very good basis for it - German and Austrian intelligence services have always been present in this region, and in all mayor events and wars had their blooded hands involved.

The whole point of this "false flag" show was to apparently show to the rest of the world, that even though the Kosovo government rejected deployment of an EU police and justice mission (EULEX) they still have to accept it, because the situation is unstable, and take a look what "albanians" did to the building of EU office in Kosovo.

I do not think it has something to do with an level of intelligence of people.Simply US is probably if not the best, then one of the best main stream media controlled countries in the world.So you can not see what is really happening around you, unless you doubt about something and try to search for some other (vary rare) alternative ways of getting information - through radio shows (like the one Alex has) and especially internet.

In Serbia, during the 90`s, before "democratic" government was chosen in the 2000., information about New world order, scened incidents and false flags during that time conflicts, and before it, were regularly show and was spoken about on tv. But now, after the "democrats" were elected, 11 years after Serbian media is the same one like in US.